Beat Siskel

Your Chance To Win A Collection Of Great Oscar Losers

March 25, 1988|By Gene Siskel, Movie columnist.

I always have this gnawing feeling when I begin compiling my Academy Award predictions for The Tribune`s annual Beat Siskel Oscar-guessing contest. The greatest fear: I`ll go 0-for-5 in the major categories and thus do worse with my brain than with random chance.

That has never happened-and it won`t happen this year because two nominees appear to be sure things-but three categories are truly difficult. And it hurts to be wrong. I still can`t believe my only mistake last year-not picking Marlee Matlin to win Best Actress for ``Children of a Lesser God.``

She gave a great performance in a popular film and was hearing impaired, too. What was I thinking of?

So it is with fear and trembling that we begin the 18th annual Beat Siskel contest, Chicago`s oldest, best loved and, though recently imitated, never duplicated Oscar-picking challenge.

Enough about me. You probably want to know what`s in it for you. How about 49 videotapes worth more than $1,800?

Last year we gave away the 47 Oscar-winning best pictures then available on tape; this year I`ve gone through lists of films since 1930 that didn`t win Best Picture and have assembled an ``Oscar-losing`` collection worth viewing- and owning. The complete list will appear on the Audio-Video page of the April 8 Friday section.

As for how to win, your mission, should you choose to fill out the entry form at lower right, is to predict correctly the winners of the top five categories-the four acting slots and Best Picture. Also, please answer our tie-breaker question: Which film will win the most Oscars and how many will it win?

Until last year, the correct entry with earliest postmark won. That gave an unfair advantage to some readers. This year all you have to do is get your entry to our postal box by Sunday, April 10, the day before the Oscar telecast.

If more than one correct entry is submitted-and that has happened every year-a drawing will be held. Only one big prize will be awarded. The winner will be announced in the April 15 Friday section.

By the way, I don`t venture a guess on the tie-breaker question, so you can submit choices identical to mine and still ``Beat Siskel.`` What follows are my predictions-not preferences-for the 60th annual Oscars.

First of all, I predict that Billy Wilder will receive the Irving Thalberg career achievement award, that Chevy Chase will host the telecast and that ``RoboCop`` will receive an Oscar for Best Sound Editing. All of that was announced last month by the Academy.

And now for the winners that have yet to be announced.

BEST PICTURE

Tough category. ``Fatal Attraction`` is more of a thrill show than a classy Best Picture. Throw it out. ``Hope and Glory,`` an English child`s whimsical view of World War II, has its fans, but most of them aren`t the over-60 white males who dominate the 4,485-member Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Two months ago ``Broadcast News`` was the talk of the movie world, but its box-office appeal and topicality have dried up, particularly in the Los Angeles area where 80 percent of the voters live. A frequent complaint: ``The picture doesn`t last in your mind.`` Cheap shot question: What does last in Los Angeles?

And then there were two: ``The Last Emperor`` and ``Moonstruck.`` The big issue is whether ``The Last Emperor`` is more admired than enjoyed. If that`s the case, then ``Moonstruck,`` a charming and funny and fully polished entertainment, will win.

Additionally, ``Moonstruck`` is the most recent release of the five nominees, giving it the greatest word-of-mouth momentum, and it`s the only nominated picture than everyone seems to like, if not love.

But I`m going to go with the class of the field, which is typically the way the Academy votes in an effort to present a highbrow face to the world. The pick here is ``The Last Emperor`` holding off ``Moonstruck`` in a photo finish.

BEST ACTOR

The toughest category to predict this year. Not enough voters have seen Marcello Mastroianni in the bittersweet love story ``Dark Eyes.`` William Hurt`s performance as a dullard in ``Broadcast News`` is so fine that it probably didn`t even register as a performance to many Academy members. Jack Nicholson is the most popular actor in Hollywood under 60, but ``Ironweed`` is so downbeat that a lot of the old geezers in the Academy reportedly sawed a lot of wood during the screenings. In Nicholson`s favor, however, are appearances in two other, more popular, films this year-as the devil in ``The Witches of Eastwick`` and as a network anchorman in a choice cameo role in

``Broadcast News.``

A longshot pick would be Robin Williams for ``Good Morning, Vietnam.``

He`s got the comedy field to himself, and the film is still popular. But a frequent complaint heard among voters is that ``it`s just his comedy act, not a performance.``